Sprinter Gwen Torrence Sunday won her third gold medal...

By

STEVE KETTLE

ZAGREB, Yugoslavia -- Sprinter Gwen Torrence Sunday won her third gold medal as the United States took two individual track and field events, and all four relays, on the final day of the World Student Games.

Spain's Anacleto Jimenez prevented an even fuller U.S. triumph, outsprinting Michael Blackmore in the men's 5,000 meters, the final event of the Games that saw more than 5,500 competitiors take part in 12 sports.

The biggest surprise on the last day was the victory of Jim Lott with a leap of 7 feet 6 inches in the men's high jump, where none of the three former world-record holders who were competing won a medal.

Torrence anchored the U.S. women's 4 x 100 meters squad to victory in 42.90 seconds, ahead of the Soviet Union and Nigeria, to earn another gold besides those she had already taken in the individual 100 meters and 200 meters.

Men's 100-meter winner Lee McRae, and 200-meter champion Wallace Spearmon, won their second golds as lead-off and anchorman respectively in the men's sprint relay, which the U.S. won from France and Japan in 38.66.

Denean Howard, winner of the women's 400-meter gold, also became a double gold medalist in the 4 x 400 relay. Howard held off the Soviet Union's Ludmila Dzigalova in the final leg for victory in 3:27.16.

David Patrick won the first track event of the day, the men's 400 meters hurdles where he nipped Greece's Athanassios Kalogiannis at the line to win in 48.76 seconds.

Patrick then got a second gold in the 4 x 400 relay, won by the United States from Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union in 3:01.78.

But the fastest turnaround was made by Lorenzo Daniel, who ran the third leg of the shorter relay, and the second of the 4 x 400 meters a mere half-hour later, to win two golds.

The United States finished with 16 golds to dominate the track and field competition, and ended the Games at the top of the overall medals table with a total of 26 golds -- one more than the Soviet Union. Romania was third with 21 golds.

Irina Kostiuchenkova won the women's javelin with her final throw of 218-11, and Natalia Bardina took the women's marathon, to give the Soviet Union two more golds Sunday.

East Germany picked up two gold medals to double its track and field tally. Hauke Fuhlbrugge proved too strong for Britain's Rob Harrison to win the men's 1,500 meters in 3:44.87, and Klaus Gormer took the men's shot with his first throw of 66 10 .

Japan scored a double triumph in the men's marathon, Takahiro Izumi claiming his country's third gold of the Games in two hours, 24 minutes, 23 seconds, and Takashi Murakami winning the silver in 2:24.55. Viktor Gural of the Soviet Union won the bronze in 2:27.01.

Bardina won the women's race in 2:46.30, with Japan's Takako Kanesashi second in 2:46.33 and American Karlene Erickson won the bronze in 3:03.00.

Seven of the 15 starters completed the women's marathon and, despite fears of heat exhaustion causing great problems in the scorching afternoon sun, there were only seven dropouts among the 27 men's marathon runners.

Romania's Marieta Ilcu took the women's long jump gold. Her fifth leap of 22-4 was good enough to win, ahead of Bulgarian Ludmila Ninova and East Germany's Heike Grabe.

Yugoslavia's Slobodanka Colovic completed an 800 meters double for the host nation, dominating the women's race and winning in a Games record time of 1:56.88.

Romanian Mitica Junghiatu won the silver and American Joetta Clark took the bronze.

The sprint finish to the men's 5,000 meters provoided a rousing end to the Games, and was followed by the closing ceremony.

At the bell, six runners were still in contention. Blackmore tried to break them, but Jimenez stayed with him and then overtook the American to finish in 14:08.15. Blackmore won the silver in 14:08.30 and Britain's David Swain won the bronze in 14:09.21.